Which Young Arm Do The Mets Trade For A Bat?

In response to which young arm or arms the Mets should trade for a bat this trade deadline or offseason…

I actually believe that Rafael Montero is the least likely to be traded among all pitching prospects in the organization right now, at least as long as this front office is in place.

There´s a pretty obvious pattern. The front office wants pitchers who throw a lot of strikes and control the strike-zone. They want hitters who only swing at strikes and control the strike-zone.

That (and an emphasis on coachability / work ethic – however you want to measure that) has been a common theme for them when targeting prospects.

Montero is the biggest strike thrower of them all – though it seems that Matthew Bowman and Matt Koch also have pretty good control, even if their stuff isn´t as crisp as Montero´s and their command not as good (yet) either.

That´s the mantra – for pitchers: “Throw Strikes and good things will happen” ; for hitters: “Don´t swing at Balls and good things will happen”.

And I´d assume that this will also be an assumption as part of trades – unless an organization is really willing to pay a high price. If the Rockies want Montero and are willing to give up Dexter Fowler, sure, he´s gone. But all things equal, the Mets would try to use Tapia or DeGrom or Mazzoni or even two of them instead of Montero, I´m quite sure.

I'm a lawyer who hails from and lives in Germany, and have been an avid Mets fan since 1984. I enjoyed rooting for Doc Gooden & David Cone back then. Spent a long time in German Baseball as a board member for the Bonn Capitals (German 1st League team) from 1994 through 2006 and can claim that I've watched former Mets farm hand C Kai Gronauer and pretty much every other German born prospect (like Max Kepler or Donald Lutz) in live action far before they became prospects. I follow and watch the Mets and other MLB games via internet TV. Also a big soccer fan (like most Germans).